I literally lost a day of my life, Thursday, February 27th. I arrived in Fiji jet lagged and living out of a day that had already set for everyone in the Southern Hemisphere. The air was singed with dawn; 6am, Friday, February 28th.
Lady, it’s impossible to imagine how large the Earth is until you’ve traveled across the Pacific Ocean seated next to a 4 year old child who isn’t yours.
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Fiji is made up of roughly 322 islands. Castaway was filmed on one of them.
I arrived during cyclone season — which is hurricane season in tropics-dialect
#proveit
Fiji is 20% Muslim and has more Hindus per capita than India!
Conservative clothing is a (very sweaty) must.
I want my garden to marry this flower.
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The International Date Line — separating today from tomorrow — runs through Fiji. This contributed to my jet lag. Very clever (wicked) plantation owners would obnoxiously insist that the International Date Line ran through their personal property so that half of their plantation was in Saturday while the other half was in Sunday. And then — since slaves are never in the position to argue — the owners would force workers to farm half of the land on ‘Saturday’ and the other half on ‘Monday’; nodayofrest.
All I can think about is ice cream.
I linked up with Peace Corps Fiji and learned roti is different than a roti-parcel.
I went to school, work, market, and ate meals with volunteers across the island.
Mary and I hitchhiked a police car to get to dinner.
PC Fiji is a strong community. Their Team Talk was our Closed User Group. The volunteers were kind, generous, accommodating, welcoming, and helpful! I owe them a huge thank you — I am truly sorry I didn’t get to meet all of you.
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PCJ and PCF have some rampant similarities besides both being vacation islands (that no one expected to go to) and having real estate locations near to the equator. They also both have mongoose (mongeese?), sour-sops, and clocks who move unusually slowly, batting their eyelashes at eternity while watching minutes chase around hours. I don’t envy PCF.
Of course, the countries have their differences as well:
In Fiji the coral reefs are actually alive.
Lion fish have natural predators.
The jellyfish don’t sting (!)
Blue starfish.
rain-forest of the sea
salt-water-swallowing-device
Did you know that the Pacific Ocean has a greater impact on the worlds climate than any other geographical feature on earth!? That is, if you believe in that sort of thing.
Fijis reefs are in the realm of dreams and magic.
As far as snorkeling goes, underwater visibility begins at about 15 meters and increases from there. I’ve never seen anything like it, an exotic open-air fish-tank with spell binding scenery, purple coral, and South American colored house-paint splattered across a living floor.
Taking pictures and leaving bubbles…
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‘mi
Tags: Fiji, International Date Line
Adventuresam 